Rosa Parks and E. D. Nixon

By Dr. Ronald Walters, The Black World Today, 15
June 1999

I recently covered the White House ceremony conferring the
Congressional Gold Medal upon Rosa Parks for MSNBC and was party to an
interesting display of revisionist history. Don’t get me
wrong. Rosa Parks doesn’t deserve to be dissed, by me or anyone
else. But was I had to confront the distinct mythology that this
gentle, dignified, courageous lady, single-handedly kicked off the
Civil Rights movement. There was John Lewis being interviewed saying
that when she sat down, oppressed blacks could stand up with dignity;
Martin Luther King, III repeated this refrain and it could be heard in
the speeches of several of the dignitaries at the event.

The mythology is that it was the character of Rosa Parks that was the
spark which lit the fuse of the Montgomery Bus Boycott out of which
came the entire Civil Rights movement. Although something can be said
for this interpretation in general, it cover up a more complex
truth. First of all, Rosa Parks was not really the picture perfect
lady on the Bus who was incensed when told to get up and give her seat
to a white man. In her role with the NAACP, she had known a series of
courageous women such as Ella Baker and others, and by the time of her
arrest, she had made a habit of defying the laws of white supremacy.

The mythology also by-passes the role of E. D. Nixon in the Montgomery
Bus Boycott. If there had been no Nixon, the nation would probably not
have known either Rosa Parks or Martin Luther King, Jr. It was Nixon
who selected Rosa Parks for attention when she landed in jail. He
knew, as an organizer for the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters and
a long time member of the NAACP, that her contacts with the NAACP
meant that people would perceive that the organization had been
violated by her jailing and that it would be easier to achieve a
response. Rosa Parks had been a member of the NAACP since 1943 and
former Secretary so, when he found out that she was in Jail he called
a meeting.

It was E. D. Nixon who called Martin Luther King, Jr. to ask whether
or not the meeting might be held at his church. Nixon’s reason
for this was that King had not been in town long enough to have been
intimidated into submission by the White power structure in
Montgomery. Later, I heard Nixon say on one occasion that he told King
that is good that he agreed to have the meeting at his church because
that is where Nixon told everybody it would be anyway. So, King became
the icon of that struggle, but Nixon was its rough edge.

The Boycott began in December of 1955 and It was just over a year
later that it would be resolved, but there had already been a bus
boycott in Baton Rouge in 1953. So, I believe with Professor Aldon
Morris that what lit the torch of the Civil Rights movement in a much
stronger way was the 1954 Supreme Court decision on school
integration. It created strong expectations, promising an end to
segregation in a broad sphere of American life, with the simultaneous
fact that the law was on the side of blacks, if only they would push
for it to work. As such, actions began in many places.

After the Montgomery Boycott, Rosa Parks fell on hard times in
Montgomery because of her role in the Boycott and it was hard for her
to reclaim her employment as a seamstress in the downtown department
stores. So, she became a soldier in the movement and found herself at
the Highlander Folk School with Septima Clark and other stalwarts,
working in the Citizenship schools that were set up all over the South
to stimulate black voting and a general awareness of the rights of
blacks as citizens. In any case, she generally faded from the scene
when, out of the blue, she was offered a job in the early 1980s by
Congressman John Conyers of Detroit and worked in his office for some
time. I noticed that he was not on the program at the Medal ceremony.

As the movement left Montgomery and went on to other sites where the
cameras were focused, E. D. Nixon also was lost to view, as he stayed
in the City and worked among its people. The creation of the Southern
Christian leadership Conference offered a role in the struggle for
preachers, which seemed to prohibit a labor leader.

What does the canonization of Rosa Parks mean to us today? It appears
that Rosa Parks has become a convenient icon of the movement’s
past, pacified every much as Martin Luther King, Jr. has been to the
point of being almost irrelevant as a symbol of modern black
struggle. Through her Foundation, she has attempted to pass on some
education about the Civil Rights movement, but even there, the message
is pitched to the generally consumable point that everyone can
potentially generate change if they are of good character and carry
themselves in a dignified and courageous manner.

This is why it was possible for members of the House and Senate to
cast an easy vote to support giving the Medal; 434 out of 435 in the
House and 82 votes in the Senate. This process of making icons is not
something that Rosa Parks did or would even approve of. It is what
happens when we are willing to forget the realities of struggle and
the depths of our oppression in order to create a modern comfort zone.

Meanwhile, I honor Rosa Parks for the dignity and courage that led to
the Gold Medal, but I will also remember E. D. Nixon who made this
honor possible.

(c) 1999 The Black World Today

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